Spicy, Savory, Sour: Bourdain Goes to Mexico

Someone please tell me where to go and get a killer taco in New York City, right now, at midnight on a Monday. After watching tonight's episode of No Reservations, I want spicy salsas and just-off-the-grill blue-corn tortillas (fantastic color, right?), huge plates of chicken mole poblano, fresh tamales. That food looked absurdly good. But I'll skip the viscous cactus liquor, thanks. There's always got to be a scary moonshine situation on this show.

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Bourdain met up with his colleague from Les Halles, Carlos, who hails from Puebla. A conversation early on hinted that the whole episode would be about Carlos and his journey from Mexico to Park Avenue, and I think it's too bad that the hour didn't spend more time on Carlos's family and their cooking traditions; his story became a tacked-on 60 second bit as the credits ran, which felt awkward.

There was the obligatory kooky activity in the form of the masked wrestling, and I could have lived without the baby doll island—it was kind of creepy and cool, I guess—but I liked the bullfighting segment best. Surprising: I wouldn't have pegged Bourdain as the anti-bullfighting type.

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Food-wise, I mean, really. I pity people who are scared of street food, and I am seriously considering a quick trip to Mexico City just to eat tacos for a weekend. I am definitely googling that breakfast spot, Fonda Margarita. I loved it when Carlos was particularly into a dish there, I think some sort of chicharones, with a salsa verde, and he says, " That is BOMB!" Even though I usually choose to eat nothing until about noon, I would gladly go there at 5:30am and eat anything they put in front of me. Those refried black beans looked light years beyond anything I ever heated up from a can, even when I get all fancy and add cumin, cinnamon and cayenne. Luckily, I now know that the Travel Channel site offers this page of all the local info on the spots featured in this episode.Give me a taco stand like the one in Mexico City where Bourdain said everyone in the crew chose to eat at again and again, the place where the local fixer, Martin, ate 58 tacos and looked like he would willingly eat 17 more. Or that other stand with al pastor, where Tony called the little rolled-up tacos "shockingly good."